Category Archives: Microsoft Surface

I constantly work with multiple notebooks, tablets and desktops. Since the first introduction of the pen-based convertible tablets over 10 years ago, I have been a convert.

As a result, I was really intrigued in June, when Microsoft announced the Surface. At the time, it seemed to have everything I like about the iPad and a tablet combined into one, simple, elegant package. To top it off, a built-in keyboard and kickstand.

Immediately when the “pre-order” button went live on the Microsoft site, I placed an order for my new Surface RT. I went into the purchase knowing all of the documented limitations of the RT platform, but the form-factor, Windows 8 and Office apps overcame those negatives.

I received my Surface on the announced day – about 2 weeks ago. Since, I have completely moved from my iPad and have started using it as my primary “task oriented” workstation. When I say “Task Oriented”, I mean the usual, emails, attachments, document creation/editing and presentation development. Of course, I can’t run my stable of virtual machines for demonstration and development. More on that later.

The first thing that I will say about my experience so far…WOW. I don’t have any significant issues with the Windows 8 RT platform so far. Speed, responsiveness and overall performance are all suitable for daily work tasks.

I’m still getting used to the Mail application, and I do miss Outlook. But the built-in mail application suffices and is only occasionally a small inconvenience. A big miss is the inability to support opening PST files – so archiving email in Outlook and expecting to open it in the Mail app was an incorrect assumption. Hopefully Microsoft will improve the Mail integration capabilities with Outlook.

Some key apps that I have been using consistently that may help many of you:

Remote Desktop – this app does exactly what you expect. I can remote into all of my development machines directly from the Surface